May, 2013

Al Bundy may have exaggerated his exploits at Polk High, but the actor who portrayed him on Married With Children, Ed O’Neill, actually has real athletic chops to speak of. O’Neill played linebacker in college at Ohio State and Youngstown State University, and was briefly signed with the Pittsburgh Steelers where, according to O’Neill, “I stayed for about a minute.”

While acting in Hollywood, O’Neill discovered the gentle art of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. He began training under Rorian Gracie and never stopped, earning a black belt in 2007.

“I began studying Gracie Jiu Jitsu over 20 years ago,” said O’Neill in a Metamoris press release distributed Tuesday. “I was actually very hesitant to start, but a 10-minute session with Rorion Gracie was enough to get me hooked. For me, studying Jiu Jitsu has been an amazing experience. In a way it’s given me a second family.”

O’Neill will provide color commentary for the highly-anticipated submission-only pro invitational Metamoris II, which takes place in Los Angeles on June 9th and will be broadcast live on their website, metamoris.com. O’Neill will join his long-time teacher’s son, Rener Gracie, in providing the commentary for the Metamoris II stream.

Not to get your hopes up too much, Nation, but in a vote held yesterday in St. Petersburg, Russia, the IOC (International Olympic Committee) recommended three sports for inclusion in the 2020 Olympic Games: Baseball/Softball, Squash, and Wrestling, the latter of which was unjustly pulled from the games in February. While wrestling finds itself against some stiff competition (in baseball/softball at least, squash is right up there with handball in terms of asinine Olympic sports), this still represents a major hurdle being cleared in the race to save the foundational Olympic sport.

The international governing body (FILA) President, Nenad Lalovic, along with former Olympic wrestlers Jim Scherr (U.S.), Lise Legrand (France), Carol Huynh (Canada), and Daniel Igali (Nigeria) were chosen to plead wrestling’s case to the IOC yesterday. In a pre-written statement, Lalovic continued to push the idea that an MMA-style reformation would successfully draw in a wider audience for the struggling sport, and claimed that it was in fact already underway:

While our place in the Olympic Games is still not guaranteed, this decision recognizes the great lengths to which we are going to reform our sport and address the IOC’s concerns.

At FILA’s recent Extraordinary Congress we enacted a number of rule and governance changes and we hope that our continued efforts will ensure we are successful at the final vote in September. We recognize that there is still a long road ahead but we will continue to work to preserve our place in the Olympic Games.

The final vote to decide which sport will be included in the 2020 games will be held in Buenos Aries, Argentina in September. In the meantime, we have an obligation, nay, a DUTY to do everything within our power to discredit baseball as a sport. So…PETE ROSE MARK MCGWIRE BARRY BONDS 1919 WORLD SERIES JOSE FUCKING CANSECO.

Think of what you were doing 11 years ago. Most of you might envision a moment in your life that probably seems like ancient history now. George W. Bush was in his first term, Nelly was on the radio; I was fresh out of college, working at an Urban Outfitters, hoping that I’d eventually find a better job. (I did, fortunately.) The year was 2002, and it was the last time Josh Barnett competed in the UFC.

Most of you already know the tale: Barnett beats down Randy Couture in the second round of the their headlining title fight at UFC 36, then tests positive for steroids and is stripped of his title. He spends the next six years competing almost exclusively in Japan, gets himself in more PED trouble while fighting for Affliction, and has a minor career rebirth in the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix of 2011-2012, where he finishes Brett Rogers and Sergei Kharitonov with startling ease (both by arm-triangle-choke), but gets his ass handed to him by Daniel Cormier.

Unsurprisingly, the main event will feature a Team Cesar Gracie fighter – UFC veteran Daniel Roberts (14-4, 3-4 UFC) – fighting against the most formidable local opponent the promotion can find. Via NickDiazPromotions.com:

From being outed for their shady drug testing policies by their current welterweight champion, to being outed for their evenshadiercontract practices by their former lightweight champion, Bellator is coming off as less a legit MMA promotion nowadays and more a venus fly trap that feeds off the desperation of its employees. With more and more fighters publicly trashing the promotion by the day, it seems as if it is only a matter of time before Bellator finds itself completely void of interest from potential clients.

And who is the latest Bellator-employed fighter to publicly disclose the promotion’s crooked business practices, you ask? That would be none other than UFC…ahem..veteran Paul Daley. If you recall, Daley has been struggling to work out some visa issues that may or may not be related to assault charges he may or may not be facing, and has thusly been unable to fight for Bellator since July of 2012. Despite the fact that “Semtex” is of no use to Bellator currently, he is still under contract with the organization, which has in turn allowed them to play ping pong with Daley’s balls. Metaphorically speaking, of course (via Daley’s Facebook):

Just got word Bellator have refused to allow me to fight yet another opponent!!! It’s becoming really frustrating that even though they are not my managers, they can approve my fights.

I’ve got great fights offered to keep me busy fighting and earning, and they seem to want to put a stop to this….all this while, having to pay for my OWN legal costs on a matter that influence my visa outcome…and my ability to fight for the promotion (Bellator) Its bullshit.

CagePotato.com reporter Brian J. D’Souza caught up to Cyborg at The Gym @ 99 Sudbury in Toronto, where they discussed her journey from handball player to dominant mixed martial artist, the contract terms that kept her from signing with the UFC, and her upcoming rematch with Coenen. Plus, Cyborg spoke out about her current relationships with her manager Tito Ortiz and her ex-husband Evangelista Santos, and the differences between sparring with men and women.

(To be fair, “smelling the opening” is still an incredibly popular phrase on the set of blind pornos.)

We would like to preface this article by stating that we in no way have anything against Mike Goldberg the broadcaster. Sure, he falls back on some cliche phrases every now and again and fumbles through the occasional fighter nickname, but how many of us can claim to be batting a thousand at our respective occupations? Rarely a day goes by where I don’t fumble a fact or treat the English language like an experimental concept, and I usually have the benefit of giving my work a once-over (well, a half-over) before publishing it. In short, Goldberg may not be the best in the business, but the fact that he still seems generally enthused to be at any UFC event after all these years — he first started working with the promotion in 1997 — more than compensates for his sporadic (and often hilarious) cluelessness.

For years, Laura “angry little feet” Nicholson (aka “ALF”) has been a calming, motherly influence on CagePotato.com’s forums and comment sections. Just kidding — she’s a salty s.o.b., meaner than a sack full of rattlesnakes…and we wouldn’t change her for the world. A passionate supporter of mixed martial arts and a superstar on twitter (@angrylittlefeet), Laura has become a true friend to many folks in the Potato Nation.

Yesterday, we learned that Laura was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma (“The big C“) and we were devastated. But we know that she won’t back down from this fight, and we’re going to have her back every step of the way.

Like so many Americans afflicted with cancer, Laura has no health insurance, and has already gone $10,000 into debt. We just want to help dig her out and raise her spirits. Every little bit helps, right? So we’ve started an Indiegogo page — “CagePotato’s Fight for ALF“ — and we’ll be asking for your donations* over the next couple months.

The $5,000 goal that we’ve set for this campaign represents a tiny slice of the financial burden that Laura will have to endure. That’s the reality. But we want ALF to know that we have her back, just as we’d have the back of any devoted CP family member who falls on hard times.

Give a dollar, give $5, give whatever you feel comfortable with. (By the way, a $50 donation gets you a CP t-shirt. A $1,000 donation gets you a live cam show with either BG or Karmaatemycat. Ten minutes, anything goes. Yeah, we’re working on better prizes.) All funds raised will go to Laura, even if we don’t reach our goal. Considering that tens of thousands of people visit this site every day, we’re confident that we can hit it.

Rousey: “I’ve always respected Miesha as a fighter, and I’ve always respected her as an athlete. How we feel personally has nothing really to do with that. In fact I’ve said it within the same sentence, that I think that she’s entirely legit, but I don’t really feel bad about hitting her.”

Rousey: “I’m actually honored to be coaching opposed her on this show, and I think that this is really what was fated to happen, and I’m really lucky to have a rival like her. If I didn’t have her around, I would suffer.”

Tate: “We have our definite disagreements, but I give her credit for what she’s done and where she’s got in the sport of women’s MMA. Without her, I don’t think we’d be as far so I do value that. But at the same time, I feel like I’m right on her heels, and I want what she has.”

Some of you may already be looking forward to the entertaining level of tension that the Ronda/Miesha pairing will create on the show, to which I’d reply — wasn’t Jon Jones vs. Chael Sonnen supposed to be WILD and CRAZY as well? And all I remember from that season was Chael delivering some speech about how a group of guys were asked to walk a plank on the ground, and they all did it with no problem, and then the plank was raised up in the air, and nobody would do it, but it was the same action, it’s just that the environment had changed, or something? Come on, somebody has to know what I’m talking about.

Bottom line: The only way to guarantee drama on TUF 18 is to cast this lady as an assistant coach.